


Long Distance Relationships are Hard, But We Can Pull Through This

by 91daesmods



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Canon Related, Established Relationship, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-19 03:34:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5952193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/91daesmods/pseuds/91daesmods
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jongdae knows it’s a long wait, but in the end it’s worth it.</p><p>Author: LJ user <a href="http://dyorayaki.livejournal.com/">dyorayaki</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Distance Relationships are Hard, But We Can Pull Through This

 

The six member, Chinese sub-group of EXO had been part of their history, and if Jongdae could rewind time, he would have tried his utmost best to keep them together. To say that Yixing and Jongdae had taken the group for granted was an understatement. EXO-M had been a blessing in disguise for both of them, having given them the opportunity to be by each other’s side almost, if not, twenty-four seven, three hundred and sixty five days a week. But as fate would have it, the Chinese sub-group started to fall apart not long after their debut. Jongdae and Yixing should have seen the warning signs, but they were blissfully ignorant at that time. Now with only Minseok, Jongdae and Yixing forming the once-six member group, the company sees no reason to let them continue. The group EXO-M has seemed to disappear, retreating back into the dust, giving rise to a whole new group of nine members, EXO.  
  
Jongdae’s posted back to Korea, where he does most of his activities - musicals, dramas, and live performances. Yixing, however, gets the shorter end of the stick. Yixing supposes this is what he’s always asked for. To be able to have his own say in what he did, but not once did he look at the repercussions of his words. Now Yixing’s back in his homeland, China, where he does movie shootings, songwriting, and everything demanded of him when he was given the right to have his own studio. He supposes it’s a good thing, but he also knows that it’s only because SM doesn’t want to lose their last Chinese member, the last person who would be able to rake in more money from Chinese fans. He feels used, and lonely.  
  
Jongdae and Yixing has only met on several occasions, but mainly for the EXOluXion concerts that they’ve been holding ever since 2015. Jongdae’s grateful for the opportunity because he knows without it, the chances of him and Yixing meeting are close to zero. It’s safe to say that when SM announces that Yixing cannot attend concerts in North America, Jongdae is crestfallen. To be three hours away from each other is painful enough, but to be halfway around the world is whole new thing all together.Jongdae tries to cheer himself up by saying it’s just a few weeks before he returns, but whom is he kidding. He’s spending Valentine’s Day in North America, more than twelve hours away from his other half. Jongdae feels like crying all over again.  
  
The day Jongdae’s scheduled to leave South Korea, Yixing Skypes him a few hours before. It’s been a long time ever since they’ve seen each other’s faces because hectic schedules only allow for delayed text messages and short replies. Jongdae wishes that one day had more than twenty four hours, so that he’d be able to spend more with Yixing. Regardless, he thinks Yixing looks great even with his makeup-less face, hair pushed back and covered by a cap (that was his birthday present to Yixing a year back), and a sleeveless tshirt that hangs low, showing his boyfriend’s to-die-for collarbones. And he doesn’t hesitate to say so. Yixing blushes and Jongdae can see the faint hue of pink dusting his cheeks across the pixelated screen. The older man holds a crumpled paper in his hands - his packing list, which had been the same for the past year, explaining its torn edges but he makes do anyway. He watches patiently as Jongdae scrambles around his room, occasionally coming in the range of the screen. He laughs, this isn’t the first time Jongdae’s that frantic.  
  
“Why didn’t you pack earlier?” He asks in amusement, trying his best to hold back his laughter. Jongdae hears the laugh in Yixing’s voice but pushes away his thought of a snarky reply, because he has more important things to do. Like _packing_. Yixing reads off the list in his accented Korean, and Jongdae slowly but surely fills his suitcase up, ready for next two weeks or so in a country not near his. He’s slightly afraid because this is the first time he and Yixing are that far apart but he guesses it’ll work. When Jongdae’s done, zipping his suitcase with a loud sigh of relief, Yixing waves the checklist in front of the camera cutely, celebrating softly (so as to not wake anyone up). Jongdae chuckles, dying internally from all the cute. What did he do to deserve such an adorable boyfriend?  
  
“Zhang Yixing, what would I do without you?”  
“Die, probably.” comes the reply and Jongdae dies once again.  
  


☆

  
  
The minute Jongdae touches down with the other EXO members save for Yixing, he takes out his phone and trails behind the rest. He’s supposed to text Yixing right after he lands. He feels a tap on his shoulder and looks behind to see Joonmyeon, beaming at him while pointing forward. Right, he was supposed to be walking. Jongdae mutters a quick ‘thanks’ under his breath and slips his arm into the space between Joonmyeon’s arm and his torso. Without having done anything, Jongdae slips his phone back into his pocket and looks up to be blocked by the backs of Byun Baekhyun and Park Chanyeol. The distance between the pair is close to zero, Baekhyun’s head resting on Chanyeol’s shoulder - which is as far as he can reach for Chanyeol’s height, and their hands are clasped together tightly. Jongdae is mildly disgusted. And jealous. So in order to break the BaekYeol moment, as fans call it (and the group has recently started calling them that too - only because it saves their breath of having to say Baekhyun and Chanyeol), Jongdae decides to barge in between them, Joonmyeon trailing behind because of their still-linked arms. Jongdae hears Baekhyun’s soft whines and figures that he’s satisfied.  
  
Nearing the entrance, the eight members of EXO break apart from one another, fixing their clothes and looking as professional as possible. Among the nine of them, they’d always have a competition on who had the best taken photos, courtesy of the fans. Jongdae wants to win this time, he’s winning this for Yixing. So he slips on a pair of black sunglasses he’d kept in his back pocket and ruffles his hair slightly, and he thinks he’s ready for leaving the airport.  
  
Jongdae gets back to the van, where the entire group is buzzing with noise. He sits at the window seat, where Joonmyeon slides into the seat beside him and tells him that Yixing was texting him. Jongdae tells Joonmyeon that he’s a lifesaver, and then wittingly adds on a lightsaber at the end of his sentence. Joonmyeon laughs at the joke, eyes crinkling up into crescents. “Next time I’m using that joke.” Jongdae nods heartily, poking Joonmyeon in the side for good measure. “Only if you give me credit.” Joonmyeon snorts and nods, turning behind to talk to Kyungsoo.  
  
Now Jongdae takes his phone out, typing a message to Yixing while leaning his head on the cool glass window of the van.  
  
_Jongdae: yixing. i’ve arrived safely in north america! o(≧∇≦o) don’t worry about me anymore and get some sleep of your own. don’t overwork yourself. you’re an amazing person. love you xingxing._  
  
Happy with his text, Jongdae keeps his phone back into the front pocket of his bag and dozes off, unwittingly leaning his head on Joonmyeon’s shoulder.  
  


☆

  
  
EXO works hard the next few days, even though they have nothing but EXOluXion in America to complete. Their company has found ways to overwork the eight of them, and keep their schedules busy such that they don’t have time for anything else. They’re given two hours out to walk around but that’s it. In the mornings, they head for the gym, privately booked for the eight of them so that no snooping fans can come in and see, and the hours after that are spent at the concert venue, rehearsing rehearsing and rehearsing. Jongdae’s quite tired of the mundane routine because he’d expected more free time but he loves his job and he leaves it as that. He goes back to the room he shares with Kim Joonmyeon, the well-loved leader of EXO, and flops onto his bed without even taking a shower.  
  
“Jongdae. You stink, go shower.”  
  
The leader calls from his own bed, ironically in the same position as the main vocalist. Jongdae scoffs and throws and empty water bottle at the other, whining into the comforter that he’s tired and doesn’t want to move. Joonmyeon moves first and sits on his bed, legs crossed and facing Jongdae. The younger feels the burn from the other’s stare and pushes himself up into a sitting position as well, pout evident on his face. He mirrors the older’s position and looks down, staring at Joonmyeon through his lashes. “I don’t want to,” he says, whining again slightly because he knows Joonmyeon is a complete pushover and he’d let Jongdae do whatever he likes if he whines enough. Jongdae stares at Joonmyeon with a pitiful look for a long time, silence ensuing the room before Joonmyeon breaks it with a loud sigh, pushing himself up from the bed to get into the shower.  
  
“It’s the last time I’m letting you go, Kim Jongdae.”  
  
But Jongdae knows that it works every time, and Joonmyeon always walks off in defeat. He thanks his parents and his lucky stars for his cute face.  
  
When Jongdae hears the shower start through the door of the bathroom, he slumps on top of the comforter again, revelling in the comforts the blanket is giving him and has no shame when he lets out another whine, stretching his limbs as far as they can go. He’s tired and he’s allowed to do this. Jongdae’s phone vibrates from the bedside table, ringing with the unique ringtone he has. It’s something Yixing had composed and recorded a while ago, but never really told the company about it, or released it to anyone. Yixing said that it was something he’d like only the both of them to share. Jongdae had asked for permission to record it and use it as a ringtone, and Yixing had said yes (because who could ever say no to Kim Jongdae). Nonetheless, he picks up the phone he had set aside when he came back to the room, unlocking the screen and realising that Yixing had messaged him again.  
  
_Yixing: jongdae!!!! how was practice today? are you tired? take lots of meds okay! and vitamins! i’ll personally come over to hurt joonmyeon if he doesn’t feed you enough. or doesn’t give you vitamins. is it fun there? are you cold? or is it really warm?_  
  
_Yixing: i forgot to say i love you_  
  
Jongdae laughs into the comforter and suddenly feels like he’s regained all his energy again. He feels like he can last for days without sleep, but just with Yixing’s texts alone. But then again, he wants Yixing by his side. Jongdae opens up Snapchat and takes a picture of himself lazing on the bed, posing with a ‘v’ sign, sending it to Yixing after typing another ‘miss u’. Then he replies to Yixing’s never-ending barrage of questions. Yixing’s reply comes almost immediately, and Jongdae thinks to himself that Yixing is keeping himself up just to reply to Jongdae. The younger furrows his eyebrows and hurriedly texts Yixing a ‘GO TO SLEEP NOW!!!!!!!!’. He’s happy when Yixing doesn’t reply anymore after that. What would Yixing do without him, he asks himself before snorting happily, snuggling deeper into the comforts of the bed.  
  
Joonmyeon walks out to find Jongdae wriggling cheerfully on the bed and sends him a weirded-out look. Jongdae pays it no attention, flipping himself up quickly and skipping to the bathroom to wash up. Joonmyeon thinks it’s because Jongdae and Yixing talked for a while. Joonmyeon is absolutely right.  
  


☆

  
  
But Jongdae’s happiness doesn’t last very long. It’s not long before Jongdae is yet again plagued with exhaustion and overexertion. Day after day, he’s got to belt his lungs out and sing and dance and sing and dance. He isn’t given a break either, because he has to live up to the fans’ expectations of main vocal. He wonders if Baekhyun feels the same, but Baekhyun has Chanyeol to lean onto, and Jongdae gets jealous all over again.  
  
The day after the first concert (which had been a huge success), Jongdae feels under the weather and he thinks it’s because of the weather and the practicing. Joonmyeon frets the entire day, helping Jongdae as much as he can even when Jongdae mumbles from below his covers to ‘leave him alone’. But Jongdae knows that they all need to move to the next area in America for their next concert in a few days’ time so he stands up, throwing off his covers and wrapping himself in a large, thick jacket to keep himself as warm as possible. There’s no time for self-wallowing when he’s an idol. He forgets to tell everyone not to tell Yixing he’s sick and by the time he remembers, Yixing has texted him with many worried faces that he feels slightly bad for not replying. Yixing must be having a heart attack. Jongdae did when he realised Yixing had hurt his back during trainee days and wasn’t there to help him out. So Jongdae replies with much gusto so that Yixing doesn’t worry as much and reassures him that they’re all taking care of him well. Yixing can’t do anything but believe him but his last text mentioned something about ‘hurting Joonmyeon for not taking care of you enough’. and Jongdae’s heart warms at that statement. _Even if it means that Joonmyeon may be in possible danger when he gets back to Korea._  
  
For the next few days, Jongdae is more free than any of the EXO members, because he’s allowed to sit and rest for a longer period of time than anyone else. He supposes there are perks of him being sick after all. But he tries his best to recover as quickly as possible because he doesn’t want to disappoint his fans attending the upcoming concert. After all, it’s their first time performing in the country and their fans there so they’d want to make a good first impression for their live stages. He’s able to perform well at the next concert after taking a barrage of vitamins and health foods, courtesy of Kim Joonmyeon. He silently thinks that the reason why Joonmyeon’s taking such good care of him is because Yixing threatened him too. But he doesn’t comment on it, of course.  
  
More days pass and more concerts come to a close with a huge bang and the eight members are elated at the continuing success of all their concerts so far. Jongdae knows that Baekhyun and Chanyeol always celebrate the night after a concert, with all the banging from the walls of their room. After the concert, Chanyeol is always excited and jumpy and eager to get home and Jongdae feels like puking whenever he sees the warning signs. Maybe it’s jealousy, but it’s mostly disgust. Baekhyun always walks with a limp the next day as well, it’s painfully obvious to the other seven, but they never say anything about it so Jongdae guesses they’re all okay with it. Except him. Because he needs Yixing.  
  
Before long, it’s nearing Valentine’s Day and he realises that Baekhyun and Chanyeol are both fretting individually about what to get the other. It happens every year and Jongdae wants to tell them that they would love whatever each person gets the other. Jongdae isn’t spending Valentine’s Day with Yixing this year and that always causes his heart to squeeze painfully in longing. If only Yixing could attend the concerts and not have schedules in China, but he supposes it’s a good thing as well because he wouldn’t have to get a present on time. That’s the only thing that can keep him optimistic.  
  


☆

  
  
The 14th of February comes faster than expected and ever since morning, Baekhyun and Chanyeol have been smothering each other with kisses, and the others don’t know what to say about it. Jongdae reckons they’ve kissed 20 times in the past hour. Joonmyeon thinks it’s 30. The rest are keeping quiet about it, but are openly showing their disgust for BaekYeol’s public display of affection.  
  
Jongdae is slightly dissatisfied that Yixing isn’t here with him. Perhaps he had expected Yixing to show up in a human-sized box in the morning, in his hotel room but he’s been thoroughly disappointed. He’s still jealous of Baekhyun and Chanyeol and he wishes they could just stop. But the show must go on because there’s a concert starting at six on that day so he plasters a smile on his face for the fans, and fans only. Throughout the concert, Baekhyun and Chanyeol are practically shooting hearts out of their eyes at each other and are completely touchy for the entire duration of the concert. Jongdae is sure that more BaekYeol fansites would pop up after today, and he’s not wrong. He wishes Yixing would be here so there’s more ChenXing interaction, but only in his dreams can he have it.  
  
At the end of the concert, the tired, sweaty but happy members of EXO pile into the van to bring them back to the hotel. The van is full of laughter and jokes and smiles that Jongdae forgets that it’s Valentine’s Day for a while. Jongdae doesn’t mind the long ride back when he is in the comfort of the other seven members who have been with him as well through thick and thin. But he minds when suddenly, he’s engulfed in a world of darkness, a piece of cloth tied securely around his eyes. Deft fingers are tying the knot with finesse behind his head, and he’s sure that it’s Baekhyun. He tries to reach backwards to untie it and demand the reason why they were playing such a prank on him. Such a lame one too, at that. But strong arms wrap around his torso and it stops him from being able to move any longer. Jongin whispers in his ears to keep quiet and follow them up, so Jongdae zips his mouth and follows without question even though his fingers are tingling with excitement. He knows he shouldn’t keep his hopes up but he really wants to see _him_.  
  
He’s brought into the hotel and up the lift and into the room. Then Joonmyeon tells him to take off the blindfold in three minutes, and he hears the rest shuffling out of the room one by one, snickering along the way. By this time, Jongdae’s sure he knows what’s going on but it can’t be, can it? Jongdae waits impatiently for what he thinks is three minutes long, before slipping off the blindfold to be greeted by... darkness? Now Jongdae’s confused and his heart sinks because it’s really _not Yixing_ and he really wants Yixing to be here with him. The room is pitch black, but cold, and he really wants to scream at the other seven for raising his hopes up too high for it to be dashed only minutes later. They really could’ve picked a better day to do this.  
  
But then Jongdae the quiet strumming of the guitar and his heart leaps into his throat. Is it Yixing? Or Chanyeol? But he knows it’s Yixing because the way they strum the guitar is different. Jongdae has long memorised the way Yixing plays the guitar, with precision and strong feelings. His heart races and he realises belatedly that maybe he’s the one who’s supposed to turn the lights on. He fumbles for the light switch and flips it on excitedly, turning to where the guitar strums are and sitting on his bed is the man he’s been dying to see for forever. Jongdae squeals excitedly, completely by instinct and covers his mouth, eyes watering in gratitude. Did Yixing really fly all the way here from him?  
  
Yixing looks up from where he’s sitting, still idly strumming a tune on the guitar, and he shoots Jongdae the smile that Jongdae swoons over all the time and isn’t sick of at all, even after all those years. Yixing’s dimple is showing and he’s smiling so widely and Jongdae is so, so incredibly happy that Yixing’s _here_ and he can’t believe his eyes. Jongdae walks quickly over to the older man and slumps on the bed, leaning into the other’s warmth. Yixing lets out a surprised, but happy laugh and puts his guitar down on the floor, so that Jongdae can lay on him completely.  
  
“I didn’t even get to play you my new song.” He says, in the amused tone he uses to talk to Jongdae almost all the time and Jongdae melts from the sound of Yixing’s voice. It’s been ages since they’ve seen each other in person and it’s taken a toll on the both of them.  
  
“It doesn’t matter,” Jongdae says, still laying his head on Yixing’s chest where he can hear his heartbeat loud and clear. He closes his eye to the rhythm and smiles, snaking his arm around Yixing’s waist. “I just need you here.” He continues, still unbelievably happy, unable to come down from the high he had when he saw Zhang Yixing standing there, guitar in hand.  
  
Yixing chuckles the chuckles Jongdae has learned to love and Jongdae feels like he’s regained all the strength he’s lost the past two weeks. He’d been yearning and yearning for Yixing but he’s finally here and he doesn’t want this moment to end. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Jongdae.” Yixing whispers lowly, pressing his lips to Jongdae’s temple and then kissing him gently on the lips. Jongdae’s heart leaps into action again, racing heartbeat and all and he’s the one blushing this time. Yixing probably got him something for today, but he knows that the best present he’s ever gotten is Yixing himself.  
  
Maybe long distance relationships were hard, but he knows with him and Yixing, anything would be able to come through.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave kudos and comments either here or on [LJ](http://91daes.livejournal.com/1206.html) to support the author!


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